Why is the Bernie Sanders campaign still raising money?

Politics

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April 20, 2020 8:01 PM

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Yesterday, the Bernie Sanders campaign sent an email out to their supporters asking them to split a donation between Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilahn Omar, Rashida Talib, and...Bernie Sanders. Per the email:

Split a $5 contribution between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and our campaign today. We must elect a Congress that stands with working people, not the corporate elite.

A text with similar language was sent to supporters this morning:

Bernie 2020: Your $5 contribution split between AOC, Ilhan, Rasihda and Bernie will help elect a Congress that stands with working people, not the corporate elite.

Hm?

You may remember that Bernie Sanders is no longer running for President. He is not up for reelection in the Senate until 2024, a date where many aides suspect he’ll be retiring. The campaign ended March with around $14 million on hand per FCC filings, so this probably isn’t a debt thing either. Even weirder, the campaign spent much of March and April actively not soliciting donations, instead using his email list to direct supporters to Coronavirus-related charities.

This is probably obvious, but suspended campaigns generally don’t raise new money.

Now that Sanders has officially suspended his campaign, it’s unclear where this money will be going. Is this some weird mistake? Funds for some kind of ongoing political advocacy group? A barebones GOTV staff for upcoming primaries? A shadow campaign ready to rise up if Biden’s sexual misconduct allegations get too unbearable?

Who knows. But it’s probably not the last one. I’ve put in requests for clarification to various Sanders operations, and will update this post if I hear back.

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Why is the Bernie Sanders campaign still raising money?

Yesterday, the Bernie Sanders campaign sent an email out to their supporters asking them to split a donation between Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilahn Omar, Rashida Talib, and...Bernie Sanders. Per the email:

Split a $5 contribution between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and our campaign today. We must elect a Congress that stands with working people, not the corporate elite.

A text with similar language was sent to supporters this morning:

Bernie 2020: Your $5 contribution split between AOC, Ilhan, Rasihda and Bernie will help elect a Congress that stands with working people, not the corporate elite.

Hm?

You may remember that Bernie Sanders is no longer running for President. He is not up for reelection in the Senate until 2024, a date where many aides suspect he’ll be retiring. The campaign ended March with around $14 million on hand per FCC filings, so this probably isn’t a debt thing either. Even weirder, the campaign spent much of March and April actively not soliciting donations, instead using his email list to direct supporters to Coronavirus-related charities.

This is probably obvious, but suspended campaigns generally don’t raise new money.

Now that Sanders has officially suspended his campaign, it’s unclear where this money will be going. Is this some weird mistake? Funds for some kind of ongoing political advocacy group? A barebones GOTV staff for upcoming primaries? A shadow campaign ready to rise up if Biden’s sexual misconduct allegations get too unbearable?

Who knows. But it’s probably not the last one. I’ve put in requests for clarification to various Sanders operations, and will update this post if I hear back.